"Jacky Jacky Was a Smart Young Fella": A study of art and Aboriginality in south east Australia 1900-1980 Sylvia Kleinert A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University, April 1994. 7 Urban initiatives i. Introduction When Aborigines moved to Melbourne in the late 1930s they gained some degree of freedom but they were still disadvantaged and experienced racial discrimination. The leadership provided by Bill Onus and others alleviated this situation by forging a new sense of identity and cohesion. Onus had a highly developed awareness of his own Aboriginality. Through the entrepreneurial activities he initiated in theatre and art, in the post-war period, he offered Aborigines employment and training and he fostered a new sense of cultural pride. Onus empowered south eastern Aborigines by selectively incorporating from the art of remote communities. As a cross-cultural mediator, he actively negotiated new relationships with the majority culture and, in some cases, altered their prevailing attitudes. His activities have been criticised as a commoditization of Aboriginal culture but this response fails to acknowledge that his initiatives laid the foundation for an urban Aboriginal art movement. From the late 1930s, increasing numbers of Aborigines settled in Melbourne.1 Hoping to escape economic depression, racial prejudice and repressive government policies, many Aborigines walked off the last remaining government stations at Lake Tyers and Cummeragunga and they left their fringe camps on the periphery of country towns to move to Melbourne. Formerly, police had forcibly returned Aborigines found camping on the banks of the Yarra river or the South Melbourne beach; now their presence was tolerated as wartime labour shortages created vacancies in soap and munition factories.2 In Melbourne they formed enclaves in the inner-city suburbs of Fitzroy and Preston, mixing within a small, relatively closed community of kin and friends. When Dianne Barwick wrote in 1963, she found Melbourne 1 In tracing the history of this diaspora Barwick puts the Aboriginal population of Melbourne at 600 in 1949. Barwick, "A Little More Than Kin," 32-35. 2 Albert Mullett, Interview 28 August 1991; Fred Bull, Interview, 6 September 1992. 213 communities maintained continuity with their regional domains and with kin but she also saw evidence of considerable division between communities and a lack of leadership.3 In such a bleak era of upheaval, there is no doubt these elements existed, but it would be unfortunate if, in emphasising these problems, we were to lose sight of the new urban alliances forged at this time.4 The pivotal influence of the lndian-Mauritian teacher, Thomas Shadrach James, is evident in the group of ex-Cummeragunga residents at the forefront of the Melbourne community: William Cooper, who formed the Australian Aboriginal League, the singer and activist, Margaret Tucker, Pastor Doug Nicholls, founder of the Fitzroy Church of Christ, Jack and George Patten and Eric and Bill Onus.s Arising out of their leadership, the Victorian Aborigines' Advancement League was formed in 1957. At this time the status of Aborigines was in flux. Urban leaders continued to fight for Aboriginal equality: they lobbied the government, mounted public protests and staged walk-outs from reserves but they despaired of achieving their goal of Aboriginal equality. In 1949, William Ferguson stood (unsuccessfully) for Federal parliaments In the meantime, the Second World War brought Aborigines throughout Australia into contact with a range of new experiences. When Aborigines served with the armed forces or found employment in munition factories they gained some equality and benefited from improved living standards. Their situation deteriorated however in the 3 Subsequently, Barwick modified her position considerably. She, like Beckett, may have been influenced by a 'culture of poverty 'approach which prevailed in the 1960s. Barwick, "A Little More Than Kin," p. 321, 336-7: see also, Beckett, "A Study of a Mixed Blood Aboriginal Community," pp. 277-280. 4 Biographies from this era highlight the dilemmas Aborigines confronted but leadership is evident. See for example, Tucker, If Everyone Cared, Mavis Thorpe Clark, Pastor Doug, The Story of Sir Douglas Nicholls: Aboriginal Leader (1965, rev. ed. Adelaide: Rigby, 1975); Andrew Markus, (ed.) Blood From a Stone: William Cooper and the Australian Aborigines' League, Monash Publications in History 2, (Clayton: Monash University, 1986). 5 Nicholls (1906-1988) worked in the pastoral industry and gained fame as an athlete and footballer. He founded the Fitzroy Church of Christ in 1943, became president of the Victorian Aborigines' Advancement League and adviser to the Victorian Ministry for Aboriginal Affairs. He was knighted in 1972 and became Governor of South Australia in 1976. 6 Horner, Vote Ferguson for Aboriginal Freedom, pp. 158-169. 214 post-war period with a return to discrimination when Aborigines found themselves in competition with European migrants and disadvantaged by a lack of education and skills. Few Aborigines had a trade; the majority worked as unskilled labour in factories, wharves, the tramways board and as laundry assistants in hospitals and waitresses. But Aborigines refused to accept this loss of status, partly because their war-time experiences had contributed toward a changed outlook. In the egalitarian ethos which had temporarily prevailed during the war, Aborigines realised that other, alternative relationships with non-Aborigines were possible. When Aborigines met Afro­ American and Maori troops on leave, they gained a new sense of international solidarity with other ethnic minorities. This interaction escalated in the post war period.? Doug Nicholls ensured that visiting American celebrities such as William Warfield, Tod Duncan, Winifred Atwell and Harry Belafonte met Melbourne Aborigines at his Fitzroy Church.s Through the work of Moral Rearmament, Aborigines met Cree Indians visiting Melbourne and Harold Blair and Margaret Tucker had the opportunity to represent their people in the United States.9 Onus played a key role in the transformations which occurred amongst Melbourne Aborigines during these critical decades.1 o He was an entrepreneur who had always used the production of artefacts to mediate with 7 Tucker, If Everyone Cared, p. 172. 8 Clark, Pastor Doug, p. 141. 9 Tucker, If Everyone Cared, pp. 172,175-198. 10 William (Bill) Onus was born at Moama in 1906 and worked with his father in the pastoral industry. He married and had two daughters, Isabel and Christine but his wife was tragically drowned. In 1934 Onus worked as a prospector in Bega before moving to Sydney where he met William Ferguson. Onus established a Moree branch of the Aborigines' Progressive Association, worked as Secretary to the Council for Aboriginal Citizens Rights within the Labour Party and organised dances for the All Aboriginal Football Club. After the war, he joined his parents in Melbourne and married a Scotswoman, Mary Kelly, in 1947. Their son Lin was born the following year. In 1949, Onus like Nicholls, considered standing for parliament but he was aware of party factions. The same year he was invited to America by Walt Disney but banned from entry. Onus subsequently served as president of the Australian Aborigines' League (later the Australian Aboriginal League), the Victorian Aborigines' Advancement League and as a Justice of the Peace before his death in 1968. Horner, Vote Ferguson for Aboriginal Freedom, pp. 85, 135, 163; Lin Onus, Interviews, 5 August, 1991 and 23 March 1992. 215 mainstream Australian culture. Onus was famous as a champion boomerang thrower, renowned for his public demonstrations at Koala Park in Sydney, Station Pier and St Kilda beach in Melbourne and, most notably, at the Sir Colin Mackenzie Sanctuary in Healesville on land formerly part of the Coranderrk reserve. In addition to his work as a wharf tally clerk, Onus traded in Aboriginal art and crafts from his home at 33 Terry Street, Deepdene. Aboriginal leaders in the Melbourne community regularly took advantage of every venue offered to them to speak on behalf of the Aboriginal cause. When, as president of the Australian Aboriginal League, Onus spoke at the opening of an exhibition by the social realist James Wigley in 1947, he began to establish friendships with artists from the wider community which would assist the next generation of Aboriginal artists.11 (Plate 73) ii An Aboriginal Moomba. In April 1949, the Australian Aborigines League staged Corroboree at Wirths Olympia-a variety concert with an all-Aboriginal cast which aimed to heighten Aboriginal solidarity and promote the Aboriginal cause. (Plate 74) By the late 1940s, after a decade of political activism, Onus realised that individual Aborigines such as Reg Saunders, Albert Namatjira, Robert Tudawali-star of the film Jedda-and the singer Harold Blair, who had achieved success in their own field had the potential to change public attitudes towards Aborigines. In the program for Corroboree Season 1949 Onus stated that "For many years we have endeavoured to obtain full citizen rights for all aborigines throughout Australia, yet our pleas have been left unanswered." Onus was "convinced that the best way of [Aborigines] getting recognition is to present them culturally to the public. "12 His strategy acknowledged that Aboriginal culture could operate as a catalyst for change. 11 A portrait of Bill Onus by Noel Counihan in